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Monday, January 2, 2012

Cookies In Review 2011

I made like a GAZILLION cookies in 2011. If you know me, you know I tend to go a little overboard with stuff. Like my hubby gave me my pretty pink bike on August 1, 2006 and since then I've ridden that bike over 26,000 miles. When I worked at Cisco, I worked 14 hour days and emailed my team at 2am and they responded. When I got a gym membership, I lived there 5 hours a day, every day. My kids theme parties are always beyond over-the-top. What? You like Pokemon now? Then I'll get you 47 Pokemon toys and re-decorate your room in that theme. Yep, that's me. Thankfully since I know I have an obsessive personality, I use it for good. I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't even eat meat or chocolate - well except for LilaLoa's chocolate cookies now and then! So yaa I made A LOT of cookies in 2011 with my latest hobby and I bought like 600 cookie cutters this year - shhh.

January 23rd was my first ever blog and I had no idea what I was doing, but I was enjoying learning so many new things. Thankfully Susan at The Painted Cookie and Callye at Sugarbelle answered all my questions and helped me along and inspired me to learn lots of new stuff. I made 5 blog posts in January and started to get a few followers.

February brought more cookies with 13 blog posts and a beautiful new PINK mixer from hubby. I also found a Kopykake projector really cheap on Ebay and made my first KK cookies.

In March, there were 10 blog posts and I made about 100+ cookies for my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary. I got a new apron and we talked a little about courage too. I also made a caramel cake that was DELISH!

April only had 6 blog posts, hubby & I went to Palm Beach Florida, I got a new awesome VS PINK luggage bag, my son earned his Black Belt in Kenpo Karate, I made a bunch more cookies, did some cycling, bought a sweatshirt so I could be like my idol, Callye in Texas and my dog learned to sleep upside down :-)

In May I chatted you up with 11 blog posts. I made more Easter cookies, made Sea Creature cookies for my mom's birthday and a rainbow cake, made some Mothers Day cookies, hosted my daughter's bridal shower, made some graduation cookies for friends and shared some printable cookie tags.

June had 6 blog posts and my baby girl got married and I got to make cookies for the entire wedding. My son and I made cookies for his Eagle Scout project which I also used as a guest pitch-hit post on Frosting For The Cause where I met my amazing friend, Paula and some Fathers Day coffee cups & donuts.

July brought 10 blog posts and I made more Independence Day cookies than any one person should ever make! My son got a summer job as a LifeGuard, so I made Lifeguard cookies and beach cookies. I got to meet my idol athlete, Lance Armstrong and my daughter and I finished the LiveStrong Challenge together cycling 107 miles and a bunch of money raised in the fight against Cancer (we've raised over $15k in the last 4 years).

In August I was really chatty with 20 blog posts. I started the month with cookies for my own birthday in a fun castle theme. Then we started our first COOKIE CHALLENGE with Hello Kitty starting us off. Have you joined us for a cookie challenge yet? Oh they are such fun! Promise you'll join in the next one. Then I had some little girls over for a fun baking day and on a blog post, we talked a lot about organization.

September brought 14 blog posts and an animal or animal print cookie challenge and also a baseball cookie challenge and more cookies for Nick's hockey team and cookies for friends.

October was filled with 20 blog posts and brought cookies for hubbies birthday in LOTS of themes and a Superman cake, Northern Shoveler ducks for my friend's racing team, ladybugs for my son's Eagle Scout project in a garden, bridal shower cookies and tons and tons of Halloween cookies with free printables too.

November had 13 blog posts and a fun Fall cookie challenge and more free printables shared. My son celebrated Movember in support of Cancer research and I made Mickey hats with a tutorial and a whole bunch of baby shower cookies for a couple friends.

December was a very busy month with 16 blog posts and an awesome give-away from CopperGifts.com. I haven't even finished posting all the Christmas cookie pictures yet, there were so many. My favorites are the snow globes. I really had fun with those.

So as you can see, it was quite a cookie decorating year! I've had a wonderful time baking cookies and adding joy to them. Sorry the pictures are small, but there really were a gazillion cookies this year! Thanks to everyone that has supported me in this adventure. I've learned so much from others and enjoyed the support of the baking community and friends that enjoy my cookies!

9 comments:

What a busy year you had! I am taking early retirement from my job at the end of this month and am so excited! I will now be able to devote myself full-time to developing my cookie portfolio and starting my wedding favor business. Happy 2012 to you!

I know we met once you volunteered for FFTC which I will always be grateful for. I can't believe that you have made so many wonderful cookies in just one year of decorating (not even a full year). Your are amazing, both in your drive (obsession :)) and your talents. Continued success with your baking, decorating, volunteering, biking, blogging and all else that makes you such a wonderful lady. All the best Cristin :) Hugs ~ Paula

Wow. You made A LOT of cookies. Oh my goodness. You always amaze me because most people make a set of cookies with 2 or 3 designs that they repeat. But when you make a set of 2 dozen cookies, there are literally 2 dozen different cookie designs. I love that you never do anything half way! (And I love knowing that you are a vegetarian too.)

@Anonymous Donna - Yes Please! ;-) How about we pray for bike rides every morning, cookie playing every afternoon and lots of family and friend time. All the rest we'll conveniently leave off the prayers ;-) Wishing you an awesome 2012 Donna!